


Go Kill Him

by OnyxSardonyx



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Justice Is Served, Some feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 08:38:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1104737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnyxSardonyx/pseuds/OnyxSardonyx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Gamzee is beating up Terezi, she loses consciousness. In the dream bubble, she meets an old friend who gives her some advice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Go Kill Him

They sit in silence for a while. Meenah is swiftly braiding Vriska's long hair. Vriska leans back against her legs and closes her eyes.

She's a ghost, and ghosts don't sleep, but she's feeling more tired than ever.

"Look", Meenah says. "Don't let the whole thing get you down too much. So Aranea screws up. And I know she will, she didn't plan this nearly well enough to -"

Something's happening. You open your eyes.

Meenah stops mid-sentence, looking at a spot next to you. The memory shifts ever so slightly. Vriska can smell Faygo and blood.

An instant later, she materialises. She's coughing up blood and cowering, as if she's expecting someone to hit her.

"Terezi?"

She looks up. Her eyes are hidden behind a red cloth, so Vriska can't tell if she's dead or dreaming.

"Vriska?" She takes a sniff. "And the Peixes ancestor. Meenah, was it?"

"What the hell happened to you", Vriska asks.

"All braiding hair and being cute", Terezi says as if she hasn't heard her. "Are you guys palebuddies now, because I sure did not see that coming."

"Terezi", Vriska snarls. "What the hell happened."

"Oh." Her smile drops. "I'm... kind of being beaten up by Gamzee."

After a moment, she adds, "He's going to kill me, I think. I guess I'm staying."

"No", Vriska says at once. "You're not dying, you can't just let Gamzee kill you. Why's he beating you up?"

"I tried to kill him."

Vriska frowns. It sounds serious. She can only remember a single instance where Terezi tried to kill anyone.

"What's he done?"

"Uh." She grimaces. "Him and me, we kind of were kismesises for a while? He - he..." Her voice becomes thick. Vriska hasn't known Terezi to cry much, but it seems she's close to tears now.

"He hit me and insulted me and debased me and - and he was awful, in every way, and I just needed to get revenge." She sighs. "Justice. Whatever."

Suddenly, Vriska understands why Terezi is wearing the red scarf. Aranea mentioned it once, but Vriska didn't take her seriously - surely Terezi wouldn't -

"Meenah", she says. "Could you - maybe give us a minute?"

"Sure thing, Serk." And with that, she's gone.

Vriska kneels down next to Terezi. She cups Terezi's face and gently removes the red cloth.

Terezi is staring at her, wide-eyed and tearful and holy shit, she has normal eyes again.

"Oh god, Terezi", Vriska whispers. She's had a long time to think about things, and to reflect, and even though she'd been the one to take Terezi's eyes, it would never occur to her to manipulate her into getting them back. She was waxing black for Terezi at the time, Vriska remembers. And she'd been so, so proud of her when Terezi managed to turn her disability into an advantage.

Depriving her of that advantage is nothing short of abuse. _I need to have a word with Aranea._

"I hate him", Terezi mutters. "Hate him hate him hate him."

"You need to go", Vriska realises. "Go, kick his ass. He can't treat you like that. Why on earth didn't you get out of that relationship sooner?"

"I don't know", Terezi says. "It was just all so hopeless and I guess I just got kinda addicted and he was making me feel like shit and I've never done blackrom before so I thought maybe it's part of -"

"Now listen to me", Vriska says. "A healthy kismesisitude doesn't include abuse, okay? Abuse is abuse, whether it's redrom or blackrom or none or both, and he can't treat you like that. Go, kill him."

She hands the red cloth back to Terezi. Terezi nods and fastens it over her eyes.

"Good luck, Pyrope", Vriska says and slaps her, hard.

 

 

Terezi wakes up in time to scramble out of the way of another hit Gamzee is trying to deliver. Everything hurts. She's not sure if what she just saw actually happened, but it doesn't matter - Vriska was right.

She gets up. Her legs are shaking. She draws a short breath; her nose isn't quite functioning, but she can still smell where her cane is, where Gamzee is, where the lava is. She dodges another blow and scrambles for her cane.

It's a struggle, and Gamzee does manage to hit her again before she gets to her sword. Her fingers close around the cool material and she feels sick. She gets up and when Gamzee comes at her again, she's ready for him.

This time, when the sword goes through his chest, he actually seems to feel something. He flinches and whines and lets off for a moment. Terezi knows it's not done, she knows he'll keep fighting for as long as he possibly can, so she doesn't hesitate and takes off his right arm.

She hates hurting him. She knows she's justified, but she doesn't want to have to kill him. She hates the little whimpers and groans escaping him as he bleeds purple all over the stone. She can feel her eyes watering again, not with anger or despair this time, but with the same unrelenting sadness she felt when she killed Vriska.

She doesn't hesitate another second. She takes a sniff and lunges forwards. Her cane sword is sharp enough to cleanly separate the clown's head from his body.

Decapitation isn't usually her style, but in this case, it's probably the only thing that's effective.

She watches without seeing as his body falls backwards into the lava, smells the plum of his blood mix with the hot red.

She falls to her knees. Everything hurts, she knows she's bleeding. She's probably dying, but she can't bring herself to care.

She lets herself fall back. On the edge of her consciousness, she's vaguely aware of Karkat and Kanaya running towards her. She knows Rose is somewhere, as well as some of the alpha kids from the new session. She doesn't care.

The world goes comfortably silent and dark.

 

When she wakes up, she can smell that she's in a dream bubble. And by some mad coincidence, it's even the same one as before.

"Vriska?"

She hears steps. Vriska's blueberry scent is just as rich now as it was when she was alive. Terezi takes a sniff: Meenah isn't here, it's just her and Vriska.

The next moment, she's pulling her up to her feet and throwing her arms around her in the most awkward and relieving hug Terezi has ever had. She tenses up, then relaxes and buries her face in Vriska's shoulder.

It occurs to her that not counting the brief encounter earlier, this is the first time she and Vriska have met since she killed her.

Ages ago, Aranea asked Terezi what she would tell Vriska if she met her. Terezi is older now, she's been broken and healed and broken again, and she still doesn't know the answer.

Vriska spares her the embarrassment by speaking first.

"I'm sorry, Terezi", she says.

"For what?"

"For forcing you to kill me." Vriska sighs. "For generally being awful when I was alive."

"Hmm." Terezi lets go of Vriska. She takes a breath: it's definitely Vriska; she's learned to tell her and Aranea apart by now. "You sound different."

Vriska laughs, and it's not a cruel and menacing laugh, it's a gentle and warm laugh. It's so unusual and un-Vriska-like that Terezi leans in and takes another sniff just to make sure it's really her.

"I'm still me, Terezi", she says. "I mean, I've changed a lot, I've had lots of time to think about stuff, you know? And many of the things I did were horrible and wrong."

"You don't sound like you", Terezi observes.

And when Vriska doesn't answer, she adds, "I'm sorry too."

"For what?", Vriska asks. "You had to kill me, you -"

"But still. Maybe, if I'd found another way - if I'd explained to you -"

"You did", Vriska says. "And I didn't listen. There was nothing else you could do. And you don't need to apologise."

This time, it's Terezi who keeps silent.

"God, you feel really bad about it, don't you? Even now, it was sweeps ago."

When Terezi speaks again, her voice is thick with tears.

"I never wanted to kill you."

"We all had to do things we didn't want to do", Vriska says. "Don't torture yourself about it, okay? In a way, it's a good thing it happened. I've had such a good time being dead, you don't even know. Leading ghost armies and making friends." She sounds almost sad.

"Aranea", Terezi remembers.

"Ran off, yeah. But don't worry about it, she'll be back with us in no time."

"You think so?"

"Yeah." She sounds so confident about it. It's like she knows all about life and death, it's like she's the great master of the game.

Terezi has lost almost all powers she once had, but she knows that it's not true. She can almost See like she once did, and she knows that Vriska is only hoping, talking herself into something that she wants to be true. She's grown fond of Aranea, Terezi realises.

"I've missed you", she blurts out.

"I've missed you too, Pyrope", Vriska says almost warmly. "Remember the Flarping that we did? Good old times."

"Remember when you pushed Tavros off a cliff?"

"I remember." She sighs. "That was mean of me, wasn't it? But he's gone now. Just off and ran away with Sollux and some others. Said he didn't want anything to do with me anymore. I guess I can't blame him, huh?"

"That was brave of him."

"Yeah", Vriska says. "I'm almost proud of him. Almost."

Terezi laughs. "Now you sound like you."

Vriska looks at her. Terezi can't see her, but she can feel it; the air always changes.

"Are you staying?", she asks.

Terezi knows what she's asking, and part of her wishes she could give a different answer.

"I don't think so", she says.

Vriska sighs. "We might not meet again", she tells Terezi solemnly.

"I know."

She envelops Terezi in another hug. "Don't die too soon, okay?"

Terezi smiles at her. "I won't", she promises.


End file.
